


The Mordred Protocol

by violentcheese



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Crime Fighting, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Merwin, On the Run, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7321780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violentcheese/pseuds/violentcheese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eggsy hits a hornets' nest, and they're out for blood. Merlin takes him undercover, going as deep as they can. They leave everything behind; London, Kingsman, being gentlemen. When you're on the run, your moral compass gets a bit skewed. </p>
<p>
  <em>"Hello, Eggsy!" Eggsy sighs into the phone. "How are you? I'm fine too, thank you. By the way, those terrorists we stung two weeks ago have managed to find us and it's time to lie low. Would you mind awfully packing a bag and running away with me?" Eggsy makes a face at himself in the mirror. </em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Run Away With Me

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time I've written a fic, but this fic has been a long time coming too. This fic is dedicated to all of the Kingsman fandom, because everyone there is like family. Thank you all! 
> 
> Violentcheese on Tumblr, come say hi!

Eggsy answers the phone to a snarling Merlin. 

"They've fucking found us, blew up one of my safe houses. Pack a bag, bring yourself and your pack to Trafalgar Square. I'll meet you there. Lose any tails." 

"Hello, Eggsy!" Eggsy sighs into the phone. "How are you? I'm fine too, thank you. By the way, those terrorists we stung two weeks ago have managed to find us and it's time to lie low. Would you mind awfully packing a bag and running away with me?" Eggsy makes a face at himself in the mirror. He's still got shaving foam on his cheeks. With a sigh, he begins to rub it off. A bit of stubble will help break up the recognisable line of his jaw.

"Eggsy," Merlin groans. Down the line, Eggsy can hear the click and slide of metal on metal that he knows now is a rifle being dissembled. "Please, Eggsy, just do like I told you. Roxy will sort out your Mum and Daisy but you need to leave in the next five minutes or we won't be making it out of London alive."

"How serious you being? We talking 'who stole the last rice krispy bun?' serious, or 'we're all going to die if you don't do what I say!' serious?" Even as he asks he's moving through to fish out the emergency pack stashed under his bed for situations exactly like this. It looks like any old schoolbag but it holds a lot more than just textbooks and mouldy sandwiches.

"The latter. Will you just fucking move? I don't want to lose you _this_ early on!"

"Loving the confidence there, I'm _sooo_ touched, Merlin, honestl-"

"Fucking! Do! What! I! Said!" Merlin growls. Eggsy's eyebrows do a complicated shuffle up into his hairline. 

"Alright, bruv, chill. I've been packing this whole time. You want a blanket?" Eggsy jokes, looking at his favourite cover for cold nights. He's surprised to hear Merlin answer that yes, a blanket would be nice.

".. Sure. See you in ten," Eggsy promises, shouldering his pack, tucking his Tokarevs into his shoulder holster and ditching his flat. He tosses the key down the drain three streets over, before descending into his local Tube station. Merlin's reply does nothing to soothe his anxiety.

"I hope."

~~~  
Eggsy dumps his phone once he meets with Merlin on the front steps of the National Gallery. A quick snap, a drop to the floor to really smash it up and then it's shoved down the bottom of the fountain to the right of the Square. They can't take any chances. Merlin does the same, and as he stretches down to pick up the broken handset, Eggsy notices the bandage wrapped around his upper arm. 

"Please don't tell me I have to dig out my tracker too?" Eggsy asks in a horrified whisper, pulling Merlin along by the hand to the bathrooms. He doesn't even have to look at Merlin to know the answer. Their twenty pence pieces clink as they hit the bottom of the machine, granting them entry. The dark walls soak up their shadows as the midday sun pours in at their backs, raising the hairs at Eggsy's nape. Idly, he wonders if Merlin still has hair on his neck. He snorts a little madly, earning him a look from the subject of his thoughts. 

"Where's the rifle?" Eggsy murmurs, doing a quick sweep of the stalls to ascertain their solitude. Satisfied, he tugs Merlin into the stall furthest from the door. It's a bit of a squeeze, with two built blokes and their backpacks.

"Thames. We're flying, we can't have weapons. Dump your guns," Merlin sighs. He pats Eggsy's shoulder when he makes a hurt noise- his Tokarevs are his babies! He takes pity on the agent. "Fine. Dump them somewhere Roxy will know to look. _Before_ we reach the airport." Eggsy nods, a grateful wink thrown his handler's way.

The younger man straddles the toilet seat easily, not noticing Merlin's slight look of distaste. He plops his bag into Merlin's arms with a grin so he can shuck his suit jacket and shirt. Merlin drops the bag on Eggsy's toe with an unapologetic grin in the face of Eggsy's glare. When his hands start to unbuckle his belt- Eggsy's eyes go comically wide. Eggsy laughs nervously, looking like he wants to bolt but only after he's stayed for the show. Merlin chuckles quietly and hands his black leather belt to Eggsy. 

"Put it in your mouth," he orders, smirking. Eggsy's jaw drops a little as he sputters, trying to get out a refusal, an enthusiastic ' _yes please_ and a questioning noise out all in one go. "I'm about tae cut open yer arm, lad. Can't have you making any noise. Now let me poke about in there with my knife and I'll tell ye a bit more about what's happened."

Eggsy doesn't- can't- really pay attention to what Merlin's telling him about the small terrorist ring that are so shadowy and obscure that Kingsman hadn't realised just what they were getting into. Puppeteering elections, corrupting politicians, ordering assassinations and wars to be waged. They're worse than the Daesh and Al Qaeda and all the fascist dictators in history rolled together, and they're so good at what they do that no one knows about them. 

"So you're telling me- fuck!" he gasps, biting down on Merlin's belt as the man himself digs around with a pocket knife for the subcutaneous tracker. He's very glad the bathrooms are empty. "You're telling me they ain't happy wiv me blowin' up their shit? Fair point, I guess. Why are you here though? You ain't on their shit list." 

"I'm your handler, Eggsy," Merlin replies patiently. He's a study in concentration with his furrowed brow, narrowed eyes and his tongue caught between his teeth. "You need me more than Kingsman right now. They'll toddle along with Morgan and Nimue just fine. No one knows we've left."

Eggsy groans, both as the tracker is finally dug out and as he realises- "Roxy is going to kill me when we get back, bollocks. And Mum, oh fuck my life!"" 

"Aye, _if_ you manage to kee your life long enough. There's no guarantee yet, though I've done what I can to slow them down." 

Eggsy pauses in wrapping his wound to look at how exhausted Merlin is. He reaches up to pat his friend's shoulder. "Thank you, Aodhán. I'm glad you're with me."

"Where else would I be?"


	2. Sunflower Umbrellas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We'll get out of London at some point!

After they effectively wipe themselves off the technological facet of the planet- nothing can be done for the CCTV except to avoid it as much as possible in central London- it's time to blend in. Eggsy throws an arm around Merlin's shoulder, huffing at how he nearly needs to tiptoe with how tall Merlin is against him, and steers him up the steps. Crowds greet them, ringed around various performers of all kinds. It's the street dancers that capture Eggsy's interest as they twist and hop about. 

A flash of skin here as a t-shirt flops down, a glint of a gold chain hooping around another man's neck. With hats to rival Eggsy's collection, they spin and jump over one another. Order out of chaos is a good way to describe how the four men come together. They tumble in seemingly random directions, over and under one another, each slap of hands or feet on concrete in time to their loudspeaker's thumping bass, but Eggsy knows that it's choreographed down to every last twist of an ankle, to every seemingly unplanned flick of a wrist. Each and every man there knows their next move, knows their partners' next twenty moves. They're one creature with four heads, writhing together and garnering 'oohs' and 'aahs' from their crowd. It's a rapt audience they've ensnared, and Eggsy reckons it's well-deserved. Aces.

"I used ta do that," he directs to his handler out the corner of his mouth. "Were a good way ta get in some dosh if the crowds felt generous, y'know? Me and me mates, we always had a laugh on those days."

Merlin nods, catching the nostalgic downturn to the corner of the lad's mouth. "Aye, I can see the same landings in their dead drops that you use in the field. It's a good skill to have. We used to enforce ballet lessons at Kingsman." He figures if they're sharing, it should be something to put a smile on the lad's face. It works, thankfully, and Eggsy's eyes go wide with poorly-concealed glee. 

"Fuck off!"

"Percival does a mean pirouette," Merlin deadpans. It's not even a lie. Flashes of himself and Harry making faces at one another in the mirrors between arabesques assault him. Eggsy squawks, bending at the waist as he howls with laughter at the thought of Roxy's uptight uncle Julian prancing about. And oh-

"You was a candidate too, wiv Harry. How's yer barre?" Eggsy grins viciously up at the tall Scotsman, eyes glinting. Merlin shrugs, 

"The Royal Ballet liked it well enough to allow me to hold the position of _premier danseur_ during one of their runs of The Nutcracker," answers Merlin with a poker face. Eggsy flips him off, disbelieving. 

"JB's bollocks they did," Eggsy snorts. A quick tug on Merlin's arm has them moving up the smaller stone staircase and through the glass doors of the National Gallery. The security guards peer into their rucksacks and wave them through, up another small tiled staircase and into the foyer. Eggsy looks up to admire the mural on the ceiling, lost in the rich colours and how the dome seems to suck you in with its 3D effect, while Merlin glances down to the one at their feet. It seems a crime to walk on such beautiful art. They finish their gawking at the same time, and without needing spoken agreement, head to the giftshop to kit themselves out like tourists. 

****** 

"Did you-"

"Yes, guv, for the fifth time, I _did_ need the six keyrings as well as my new Van Gogh umbrella. It's London, mate. Gonna rain at some point!" Eggsy smacks his handler in the back of his knees with his new umbrella, one unfortunately without any fancy Merlin-grade add-ons. Pity. 

"It's going to be raining a lot more where we're headed. At least you'll get some use out of it," Merlin nods. An umbrella was a sensible choice. Long-range and useful in a close-up fight, it could do some heavy damage. Eggsy's weapon of choice was usually his Rainmaker anyway, and half the time he didn't even use the extra capabilities aside from it's bulletproofing. Merlin allows a cryptic smile to tug at his lips in response to Eggsy's unasked question. "We're going home, Eggsy."

"Home? Ain't we on the run?" Eggsy's brows furrow- partly chalked up to him trying not to stumble down the spiral stairs to Charing Cross Tube station and partly at Merlin's statement. "Don't fink it'd be a good idea to hole up back at the Mews, specially not when Mum pops round."

Eggsy and Merlin beep through the Tube gates side-by-side, Oyster cards tucked back into pockets as they line up for the escalators. Eggsy stands on the step above Merlin, always relishing the opportunity to be taller than his mentor, even just for a moment. He likes seeing his reflection in Merlin's shiny head too. 

"Not your home, lad." Merlin shakes his head, finds himself grinning and walking backwards off the escalator. "I'm taking ye tae Scotland wi' me."


	3. Chapter 3

"We've been made, head down, now," Merlin hisses. All traces of his smile are gone and Eggsy is left reeling. He gets no time to process their destination before Merlin is pulling him in behind a pillar, eyes darting side to side and lips twitching as he thinks out his options. Eggsy keeps watch as best he can over the taller man's shoulder. It's not hard to spot the goons in the midst of the morning commute's rush hour traffic. They're the most alert people on the platform, the two blokes in all-black. _Subtle_ , Eggsy thinks. They're heading to their hiding spot and well, that just won't do. 

"On the move, guv, keep light on yer feet." Eggsy turns Merlin around, presses against his back and starts them walking. Merlin helps by steering them through the crush of passengers as best he can. The sign above announces the next train is due in 2 minutes. 120 seconds, plus the 40 seconds that the train is stopped at the station for. Eggsy keeps a count in his head as he tugs on Merlin's waist to sway him around a group of schoolgirls and into the midst of some French tourists. 

"Ah, excusez-moi, pardonnez moi madame! Merci, merci, desolé!" Eggsy pipes up politely, flashing his most charming 'Harry Hart' smile. "Plan?" 

"Aye. Stand at platform one as the train pulls up, then follow my lead. Sights?" Merlin side-steps a woman in a wheelchair easily, Eggsy flowing behind as if he's a leaf caught in Merlin's wake. The wind begins to pick up in the tunnel, a hot breeze that sets Eggsy blinking. 

"Twenty feet, six o'clock."

"Looking our way?" 

"Nah, they're picking their nose. Course they are!"

"Easy, lad. We'll be fine, just don't use your gun, eh? Ricochet in a Tube tunnel is never fun," Merlin quirks his lips into a quick smile. Distracted, Eggsy can't stop Merlin stealing his snapback from the crown of his head. "Stop yer squawkin', I need it more 'n you do! Don't get on the train." 

The train rumbles as it passes, brakes squealing. Merlin and Eggsy push up towards the door, slinging glances at their pursuers. One grins, flashing them his gun under his leather jacket. Eggsy bares his teeth at the man. The doors open with a whoosh. Passengers spill out like hundreds of busy ants, as they swarm towrds the exit and up into the street. Merlin and his agent hold back, being the last ones on the train. 

"Mind the gap, ladies and gents, mind the gap please!" calls the stationmaster over the loudhailer. Eggsy peers down the carriage and sees their tails have followed them onboard. 

"This train is now departing. Please stand clear of the doors."

Eggsy feels two hands on his back and next thing he knows he's being squeezed out of the closing door and onto the platform by his handler, a loud grunt shoved up from his sternum. Banging behind them makes them turn, and it's to the sight of their followers angrily shouting at them. Eggsy grins. 

"Ace plan, guv. Where next?" 

Merlin shoves Eggsy's hat onto his own head and hides his glasses in his pocket. Eggsy, stunned by the transformation, whistles lowly. _Nice_. 

"Heathrow, then the first plane to Glasgow or Edinburgh we can get. Doesn't matter where as long as it's soon. Now come on, we're going to be posing as a couple for the next few weeks. Stand a little closer."

Eggsy hesitates before shrugging and ducking in under his mentor's arm. It't no great hardship, anyway. It's just Merlin.


End file.
